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Humane Society builds quarantine area

Corey Schoonover, executive director of the Fairfield Area Humane Society, talks about the new building that's going up behind the society's existing building. The new building will serve as a quarantine area for dogs and cats that are brought to the shelter. It will also have a garage that will be used during society's spay and neuter clinic. A conference room that Schoonover hopes will eventually be equipped as a surgical suite will also be in the building.(Photo: Matthew Berry/Eagle-Gazette)Buy Photo

LANCASTER - An expansion at the Fairfield County Area Humane Society set to open in April should allow for more annual pet adoptions and create a more functional facility, Executive Director Corey Schoonover said.

Construction of the 1,700-square-foot building started in November and is an addition costing about $120,000 to complete. Schoonover said the stand-alone building will act as a quarantine area for intake animals that still need medical evaluations and puppies that aren't ready for viewing. The building will have eight indoor/outdoor kennel runs — in addition to the 16 kennels in the main building — and a separate quarantine room for cats.

"Besides the dog park, it's the first new thing we've built," Schoonover said, adding that he was excited about the building's possibilities.

"Our goal this year is 900 (adoptions)," he said, compared with the 784 adoptions last year. "Unfortunately, there is never a shortage."

The building also will be used during the society's spay/neuter clinics, as a space for veterinarians to conduct surgeries and as an area where sick animals with airborne illnesses, such as kennel cough, can be housed.

The cost of the project has nearly doubled since it was first introduced because of its added capabilities, Schoonover said.

He expects the quarantine building to be especially useful in housing animals from large-scale hoarding cases. When the Humane Society confiscated 57 dogs from a Rushville home in January, Schoonover said he wished the new building would have been operational. Not all of the dogs could fit at the current facility, and some of the dogs were taken to the dog shelter for housing as a result.

Of those 57 dogs, including some puppies, 26 of them are left. However, Schoonover said only 10 dogs are up for adoption. The others are either too young to be adopted or are still receiving vet treatments. One dog is in need of hip surgery, which will cost between $1,200 and $1,800. The Humane Society is requesting donations to cover the surgery.

A total of 150 adoption applications were submitted after the hoarding case, but Schoonover said not all applications were matched with the dog the applicant requested.

"If you didn't get one from this group, there's always another coming through the door," he said.